Sheet handling implement



May 31, 1966 c. A. HANSEN SHEET HANDLING IMPLEMENT Filed March 16, 1964 INVENTOR.

. 3'; C L ARENCE AJI'ANSEN 1}: BY

ATTORNEY United States Patent Filed Mar. 16, 1964, Ser. No. 351,948 Claims. (Cl. 294-16) The invention relates to an implement or tool for use in the gripping and carrying of relatively rigid sheet or plate members of various materials.

The disclosed implement has been particularly designed for multiple use in the manual gripping engagement and subsequent support of various workpiece sheet elements such as wood slabs or panels, and sheets of plyboard or plasterboard or metal or plastics, etc., of generally uniform thickness, while the engaged and supported sheet is disposed in generally upright position.

An object of the invention is to provide a sheet-handling implement of the character described which is manually engageable with a workpiece sheet element disposed in generally upright position, and is positively maintained in gripping engagement with the supported sheet entirely by the action of gravity.

Another object is to provide a sheet-handling implement having cooperative gripping jaws which are arranged to grippingly engage between them the opposed faces of gripped sheets of generally uniform thickness to the degree A further object is to provide a sheet-handling imple- :ment of the character described in which the cooperative gripping jaws are intermediately pivoted for their mutually 'independent and relatively universal rocking solely about mutually spaced pivot points provided by a common supporting and control arm.

Yet another object is to provide sheet-handling implements of the character described which are particularly adapted for their plural operative installation at spaced upright edge points of a workpiece sheet, with their gripcontrolling arms disposable at the same or opposite sides of the engaged sheet at the different points.

A still further object is to provide, for lifting and supporting use with a workpiece sheet, cooperative sheethandling implements which are of particularly simple and effective structure for their use in the handling of workpiece sheets having different and more-or-less uniform thicknesses.

The invention possesses'other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth or be apparent in the following description of a typical embodiment thereof, and in the accompanying drawings, in which,

FIGURE 1 is a side perspective view of the present sheet-handling implement as disposed for its gripped in FIGURE 4.

,FIGURE 6 is a side view of the implement as grippingly applied to the far end of a workpiece sheet.

FIGURE 7 is a side view showing a pair of the implements as gripping the opposite ends of a workpiece sheet while supported from a hoist line.

Essentially, a present sheet-gripping and supporting implement 11 includes an element 12 which includes an elongated and suitably rigid support bar which is pro- 3,253,849 Patented May 31, 1966 vided at one end with a transverse handle extension 13, and carries a sheet gripping jaw 14 at its other end and a sheet gripping jaw 15 between the jaw 14 and the handle extension 13, with said jaws comprising plate members swingably and respectively mounted on mutually spaced and parallel jaw-carrying trunnions 16 and 17 eX- tending transversely from the bar 12 in a plane including the handle extension. The present jaws 14 and 15 of the implement assembly are of like rectangular outline, are provided with mutually opposed and elfectively flat frictional working faces 14 and 15', and are provided behind and across their rear faces 14" and 15" with mutually parallel and uniform bearing bores 18 and 19 in which the respective trunnions 16 and 17 are replaceably journaled and suitably retained, as by stop pins 21 mounted in free end portions of the trunnions beyond the ends of the bores 18 and 19 thereat, with said trunnions preferably tapering slightly from central points thereof (as indicated in FIGURE 5) for a reason hereinafter brought out.

As particularly shown, the trunnion-receiving bores 18 and 19 are provided by like members 22 of uniform crosssection having one-piece U-bend portions 23 extending from andbetween oppositely directed and coplanar flange portions 24 at which the members are suitably and integrally fixed to the rear faces 14" and 15" of the jaw plates 14 and 15, as by welding or riveting, with the bore-providing portions 23 thereof midway between the ends of the plates 14 and 15 and of the ends of the attaching flanges 24 whereby each bearing bore 18 M19 is defined between the trough within the portion 23 of a member 22 and the opposed rear jaw plate face. It will be understood that the jaw plate members 14 and 15 and the bore-providingmembers 22 of the different jaw assemblies are of requisite gauge and rigidity and material for the duty required of them.- Also, jaw assemblies including the jaw plates and trunnion-receiving bores might have cast homogenous bodies of suitable strength, with the trunnion-receiving bores provided in rib projections extending integrally across and from the rear faces of the jaw plates.

It will now be noted that a present tool 11 has been so designed for its manual application to a workpiece sheet S supported from the lower side edge thereof that the support of an end of a sheet gripped thereby is preferably effective in a plane which longitudinally and centrally bisects the working faces of the cooperatively opposed jaws 14 and 15 for best assuring a maximum and maintained frictional gripping of an engaged workpiece by and between the jaws. Since.the hand grip provided by the handle extension 13 is preferably no less than that of the full grip width of a users hand, while the present jaws 14 and 15 are of somewhat less width, the handle extension 13 of the present bar 12 is provided adjacent the free end of a straight bar portion 25 which is appropriately offset from a connected straight bar portion 26 providing the trunnion 16 at the free end thereof and the trunnion 17 in spaced relation to the trunnion 16, with said bar portions 25 and 26 mutually parallel and integrally. connected by an intermediate connecting bar portion 26 oblique to the portions whereby the middle part of the handle extension 13 lies substantially'in the said central plane of gripping of the jaws.

Since the axes of support of the trunnion-mounted jaw assemblies are, for each jaw, disposed rearwardly of the centers of gravity of the jaw assemblies when the bar 12 is disposed in a substantially horizontal plane, the jaws will be gravitally swung to contact at their upper ends, as indicated in FIGURES l and 2, to then define a downwardly open V-shaped space, whereby the gravitally positioned and contacting jaws must be swung apart at their upper ends for receiving the opposed edge of a sheet end edge portion between them for its subsequent gripping by and between the jaw. Accordingly, the entry of an end portion of a sheet S between the initially contacting jaw plates 14 and is readily effectable by lowering the positioned unit downwardly upon the top edge portion of the uprightly-positioned sheet S to be engaged, as is indicated in FIGURE 2, or by wedgedly entering the end edge portion of the sheet in the space between the jaws while the unit is positioned and lowered with the plane of the handle extension 13 and trunnions 16 and 17 sloping slightly downwardly from the support bar 12.

It will now be noted that when a present tool 11 has its bar portion 12 manually disposed generally horizontally and transversely opposite either side face of an end edge portion of a generally upright workpiece sheet S with the said sheet edge portion thereat disposed between the opposed jaws 14 and 15, an appropriate raising of the bar handle at the handle extension 13 operates to effect a positive gripping of the opposed sheet edge portion between the opposed jaw faces 14' and 15' whereby a continued lifting of the bar handle 13 in a plane parallel to the line of the engaged edge may raise the gripped sheet thereat while the action of gravity, combined with the frictional engagement of the jaw faces with the sheet sides, provides and maintains a positive gripping of the sheet by and between the jaws. Since, however, workpiece sheets S to be engaged and lifted by a present implement may vary in thickness, and the most effective spacing of the working jaw faces 14' and 15 must be that of the gripped sheet while the bar 12 perferably makes an oblique angle A of approximately forty-five degrees with the plane of the sheet, a means is preferably provided for adjustably varying the cooperative spacing of said implement jaw faces for engaging workpiece sheets of different thicknesses.

For varying the effective cooperative spacing of the working faces of the present jaw members 14 and 15, the jaw plate member 15 is shown as removably mounting a spacing unit 31 which comprises a relatively rigid accessory member 32 arranged for its fixed and removable mounting on and against the jaw member 15 and may be provided at the exposed side with a more-or-less resilient facing pad 33 of rubber or the like comprising the working face 15' for the resulting jaw assembly. As particularly shown, the jaw plate 15 is provided with transverse holes receiving mutually spaced studs 35 extending fixedly and complementarily through and from the rear side of the plate 32, with the extending stud ends provided with diametric holes receiving cotter keys 36 or the like for a dismounting of the units 31 with respect to the plate 15, whereby a present spacing unit may be omitted, or be replaced with a spacing unit of different effective thickness, as required, for using the present implement with sheets S having diiIerent thicknesses, Also, it will be understood that the working faces 14' or 15 of the jaws 14 and 15 should provide friction facings 33 for their non-slipping engagement with smooth faces provided by sheets of glass, bakelite, etc. to be handled.

In reference to the functioning of a present implement, it will be particularly understood that the support of a gripped sheet S solely and independently from the pair of trunnions 16 and 17 of the base 12 insures a fully distributed pressure engagement of the jaw faces 14' and 15' with a workpiece sheet S by reason of the effectively universal mounting engagement of the trunnionmounted jaws about and longitudinally of the slightly spindle-shaped bearing faces of the trunnions in the uniform mounting bores of the jaw plates. while such is not shown, it will be understood that the sheet-engaging faces 14' and 15' of a present implement might be spherically concave to provide a maximum bearing zone against the opposed sheet faces, particularly if the jaws are resiliently deformable transversely thereof. It is also to be particularly noted that the bar 12 of cooperative sheet-engaging implements 11 may be operatively dis- Furthermore,

posed at whichever side of an engaged workpiece sheet S is most convenient, and that the line of support provided by a pair of cooperatively mounted implements 11 must extend through a point above the center of gravity of the supported sheet.

As particularly shown, the handle 13 of the bar element 12 may retainedly mount a tubular grip member 38 of more-or-less resilient material for facilitating a firm hand grip thereof by a user of the implement. Also, as indicated in FIGURE 6, while present implements 11 are simultaneously applied by different mechanics for supporting and manually carrying the opposite ends of an elongated and relatively large workpiece sheet S, the handles 13 of the installed implements 11 might be engaged by loops or hooks H at the ends of flexible and angularly related support lines I extending from a terminal loop K of a hoist line L whereby to provide a sling support of the sheet. For insuring a fixedly positioned engagement of a sling loop or hook H with a hand grip 38, the latter is intermediately provided with a peripheral hook-receiving groove 39. It will be understood, however, that the illustrated sling support of a workpiece sheet S by and through spaced sheet-gripping implements 11 corresponds to the independent application of the implements by workmen at different upright edge portions of the sheet for carrying the supported sheet.

With reference to other possible working applications of the present implements or tools 11, it will be understood that workpiece sheets of irregular outline may be supported with mutually spaced and upright edge portions of such sheets gripped by implements 11, whereby the use of the present implements is not limited to sheets of rectangular outline. It will also be understood that a present implement 11 may be advantageously applied as a gripping means for a horizontally disposed workpiece sheet S at a side edge thereof for use in dragging the sheet in its plane by its handle 13 in the line of pull on the jaw-engaging bar 12.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the advantages of the present sheet handling implement will be readily understood by those skilled in the art to which the invention appertains. While I have shown and described an implement which I now consider to comprise a preferred embodiment of my invention, I desire to have it understood that the disclosures are primarily illustrative, and that such changes and developments may be made, when desired, as fall within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In an implement for gripping and moving a workpiece sheet of relatively rigid material, jaw members providing working faces adapted for a mutual gripping engagement of an edge portion of the sheet between them,

a control arm providing relatively fixed and parallel trunnions extending transversely therefrom in laterally spaced relation, and means comprising the sole connection be tween the jaw members mounting said jaw members on said trunnions for independent rocking movements, one with respect to the other, about the trunnion axes, a rocking of said control arm in a plane transverse to the plane of the trunnions being operative to effect a gripping of the edge portion of the sheet by and between the jaws when the plane of the trunnions is oblique to the plane of the gripped sheet, and a continued sheet-gripping movement of the arm being thereafter operative to move the gripped sheet in its plane.

2. In an implement for gripping an upright edge portion of a statically disposed planar sheet of relatively rigid material, jaw members providing opposed working faces adapted for a mutual gripping engagement of the opposed faces of the sheet edge portion by and between them, a control arm, and parallel trunnions mounting said jaw members on said control arm for independent and universal rocking movements of the jaws, one with respect to the other for a gripping of the sheet edge. portion by and between the jaws when the control arm is rocked in a plane transverse to the plane of the trunnions to a limiting oblique relation to the plane of the jaw-engaged sheet portion with said control arm and trunnions providing the sole connection between the jaw members.

3. In an implement for gripping an upright bounding edge portion of a sheet of relatively rigid material for supporting the sheet thereat, a support arm providing relatively fixed and parallel trunnions extending transversely therefrom in laterally opposed fixed spaced relation' at an end portion of the arm, and unitary jaw assemblies comprising jaw plates providing forward working faces adapted for a mutual gripping engagement of the sheet edge portion between them and having bearing bores extending across them and journaling said trunnions for independent rocking movements of the jaws, one with respect to the other, in a common plane transverse to the plane of the trunnion axes when the support arm is generally horizontal for effecting a gripping of the sheet by and between the working faces of the jaws when the arm is rocked to dispose the plane of the trunnions in obliquerelation to the plane of the gripped sheet.

4. The combination of claim 3 having the centers of gravity of the jaw plate assemblies disposed adjacent' the working faces of the jaws whereby the jaw assemlies are gravitally biased and movable to a mutually contacting relation at upper points thereof which are separable for a disposal of the sheet edge portion between them for a gripping thereof by and between the working faces of the jaws.

5. In a tool for gripping and freely moving a workpiece sheet member of a relatively rigid material having planar side faces, a pair of similar elongated jaw members each providing an effectively flat gripping face, a single link member of fixed effective length connecting corresponding pointsof said jaw members for their rocking about mutually parallel axes to permit the disposal of working faces of the jaw members in mutual opposition and in variable angular relation to each other for receiving the workpiece member between them, said link member having a lever arm extending rigidly from one end thereof and terminally providing a handle extending in the plane of the link member which contains the parallel axes of the jaw members and adapted for its swinging longitudinally of its jaw members while a workpiece portion is disposed between the jaw members for its engagement by and between the gripping faces of the jaw members and thereafter supporting the workpiece thereat for its movement by and with the handle.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,793,065 5/1957 McCurry 2941Q GERALD M. FORLENZA, Primary Examiner, MU 1 1 QQ M -i f a 

1. IN AN IMPLEMENT FOR GRIPPING AND MOVING A WORKPIECE SHEET OF RELATIVELY RIGID MATERIAL, JAW MEMBERS PROVIDING WORKING FACES ADAPTED FOR A MUTUAL GRIPPING ENGAGEMENT OF AN EDGE PORTION OF THE SHEET BETWEEN THEM, A CONTROL ARM PROVIDING RELATIVELY FIXED AND PARALLEL TRUNNIONS EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY THEREFROM IN LATERALLY SPACED RELATION, AND MEANS COMPRISING THE SOLE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE JAW MEMBERS MOUNTING SAID JAW MEMBERS ON SAID TRUNNIONS FOR INDEPENDENT ROCKING MOVEMENTS, ONE WITH RESPECT TO THE OTHER, ABOUT THE TRUNNION AXES, A ROCKING OF SAID CONTROL ARM IN A PLANE TRANSVERSE TO THE PLANE OF THE TRUNNIONS BEING OPERATIVE TO EFFECT A GRIPPING OF THE EDGE PORTION OF THE SHEET BY AND BETWEEN THE JAWS WHEN THE PLANE OF THE TRUNNIONS IS OBLIQUE TO THE PLANE OF THE GRIPPED SHEET, AND A CONTINUED SHEET-GRIPPING MOVEMENT OF THE ARM BEING THEREAFTER OPERATIVE TO MOVE THE GRIPPED SHEET IN ITS PLANE. 